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.The questions being asked how to achieve thisaim are many and varied.It is therefore my task to shine some light on theEuropean food problem through the last decades and to describe the present andfuture duties and developmental possibilities in broad outline.It is not possiblehere, though, to expand on the extent of this multifaceted problem and to go intotechnical details.We will instead look at the matter as a whole and try to point outthe individual processes and measures in relation to the whole question.The Development of Agricultural Enterprises and the Structure of Europe sFood EconomyThe situation at the outbreak of this war was the result of a long process beingdriven forwards by a economic boom, far reaching agricultural and breedingprogress and technological advances, which had sometimes been slowed down oreven held back by events related to the war or to economic crises.The central event of the last three generations was the dramatic increase inpopulation and the consequent urbanisation of people.Since the middle of the lastcentury the population of Europe has almost doubled.Previous to that, it took amillennium to achieve such an increase and was made possible by biological andeconomic development over just two generations - this is without parallel inhistory.Equally unparalleled was the industrial development over the same period,whose inception was long ago but whose results will only be known at the end ofthe 20th century.If such an industrial boom did take place, it was accompanied by far reachingchanges in the division of labour and the way in which the population fed itself.Both processes are of great significance from now on, not only for the entire socialstructure, but also for agricultural development and the food economy in mostcountries.Urban and industrial centres attracted surplus inhabitants, so thatnumbers of people in rural areas generally stayed the same.Thus the percentage ofthis part of the population grew smaller and it is a process that still goes on inindividual countries, especially Germany.The demographic effects cannot beoverstated.One can roughly estimate that even at the start of the 19th century almost a fifth ofEurope s population lived in the countryside, was employed in agriculture oragriculture-related work.In Germany and Belgium the figure is now a quarter; in Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden just a third; in France and Italy around ahalf and in theoverpopulated, agricultural nations of south Europe almost four-fifths of the wholepopulation.Thus there were pressing concerns about the preservation of a minorityand various attempts to relieve the overpopulation of the flat land and to increasethe low work productivity by increasing field yields.These population structure differences and the division of labour among theemployed are a reflection of the industrial production sites, which are concentratedin central Europe, namely down from the North Sea over central Germany, up tothe edge of the Carpathian mountains.The areas right on the periphery of this areaare of a predominantly agricultural character.The people in the industrial countries were faced with the task of providing notonly a constantly growing population with essential foodstuffs and agricultural rawmaterials, but also satisfying increasing demands for higher product quality.Alongwith the population increase and the social changes came the well-known changesin eating habits.These has not been any other process, which has so influenced thedirection of agricultural production and the whole structure of the European foodeconomy, than the shift in human eating habits from vegetable to animal products.The pressure created by the population increase and higher consumption demandedthat European countries grow cultivated crops that produce higher gross yields andalso the highest food yields.This was true for the majority of root crops: potatoes,sugar beet and the other important types of vegetable.Root crops and vegetablesrequire more work and fertiliser than the various types of cereals, just as these domore than green fodder and pastureland.The increased level of work, however,leads to higher yields which only much later are subject to the effects of the law ofdiminishing yield returns.Firstly it was the mills supplying textiles, shepherdingand cotton growing farms etc.which moved to other areas.Shepherding, whichneeds large pasture areas and reached its peak in the 1860 s has dwindled to a tenthof its earlier level.It was really since cotton took root in the undiscovered areas ofAmerica that shepherding moved away to the steppes of Argentina, Australia andSouth Africa.This was the start of cotton competing with wool.From thesecountries large amounts of raw material flowed into Europe where the textileindustry and heavy industry were the focal point of industrial development.A similar thing happened to the growing of trees, which entails a relatively highamount of manual work and is less suitable for mechanisation or, to be moreprecise, was less suitable than cultivated crops as technology stood at that time.Thus it moved to regions where land was cheap and labour costs low, to easternEurope and Russia which still supply a large part of the total world production.The development is different, at least in parts of countries, for the three mostimportant commodities for human nutrition: cereals, meat and fat.Europe could generally supply itself to the extent that the individual countries made cropproduction the main priority in the formation of their trade and agricultural policies,thus mobilising the means of production of their own land.They wanted to keep asfar as possible the production of bread and animal production in their own country.However, this latter aim was not achieved in most countries.Just as a point, Great Britain converted to total free trade soon after the NapoleonicWars due to their feeling of absolute maritime superiority and abandoned itsagriculture for extensivisation.As a result, its source of food was movedincreasingly outside its borders.Firstly England took the available surpluses ofcereal in Europe, refined animal products and wool, until the demand from thosecountries of origin were able to absorb these surpluses themselves.Then food andraw material supply moved increasingly to occupied areas overseas.After theirvirgin agricultural areas were inhabited and developed, they were exposed moreand more to world trade.The agricultural economies of Denmark and Hollandembraced division of labour and were used to supply the English food economy tothe extent where those countries imported large amounts of cereals and foodstuffsand then sent the valuable end products gained from livestock-holding and dairiesto the English market.The final result in the years preceding the outbreak of warwas that England s importation just of bread cereal and animal feed was 10-11mtons more the import surplus of the whole of Europe.Great Britain also had alarger supply need of the important food types than the whole of Europe.Theimport surplus of sugar was 2m tons, meat 1.5m tons and fat 0.8m tons.Calculatedin terms of calories, England accounted for 20% of all food consumption.The German agricultural economy was able to keep pace the longest with growingdemand for food by increasing its agricultural production.Nevertheless its varyingagricultural policy at times lacked some important conditions for an intensivisationof production [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.The questions being asked how to achieve thisaim are many and varied.It is therefore my task to shine some light on theEuropean food problem through the last decades and to describe the present andfuture duties and developmental possibilities in broad outline.It is not possiblehere, though, to expand on the extent of this multifaceted problem and to go intotechnical details.We will instead look at the matter as a whole and try to point outthe individual processes and measures in relation to the whole question.The Development of Agricultural Enterprises and the Structure of Europe sFood EconomyThe situation at the outbreak of this war was the result of a long process beingdriven forwards by a economic boom, far reaching agricultural and breedingprogress and technological advances, which had sometimes been slowed down oreven held back by events related to the war or to economic crises.The central event of the last three generations was the dramatic increase inpopulation and the consequent urbanisation of people.Since the middle of the lastcentury the population of Europe has almost doubled.Previous to that, it took amillennium to achieve such an increase and was made possible by biological andeconomic development over just two generations - this is without parallel inhistory.Equally unparalleled was the industrial development over the same period,whose inception was long ago but whose results will only be known at the end ofthe 20th century.If such an industrial boom did take place, it was accompanied by far reachingchanges in the division of labour and the way in which the population fed itself.Both processes are of great significance from now on, not only for the entire socialstructure, but also for agricultural development and the food economy in mostcountries.Urban and industrial centres attracted surplus inhabitants, so thatnumbers of people in rural areas generally stayed the same.Thus the percentage ofthis part of the population grew smaller and it is a process that still goes on inindividual countries, especially Germany.The demographic effects cannot beoverstated.One can roughly estimate that even at the start of the 19th century almost a fifth ofEurope s population lived in the countryside, was employed in agriculture oragriculture-related work.In Germany and Belgium the figure is now a quarter; in Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden just a third; in France and Italy around ahalf and in theoverpopulated, agricultural nations of south Europe almost four-fifths of the wholepopulation.Thus there were pressing concerns about the preservation of a minorityand various attempts to relieve the overpopulation of the flat land and to increasethe low work productivity by increasing field yields.These population structure differences and the division of labour among theemployed are a reflection of the industrial production sites, which are concentratedin central Europe, namely down from the North Sea over central Germany, up tothe edge of the Carpathian mountains.The areas right on the periphery of this areaare of a predominantly agricultural character.The people in the industrial countries were faced with the task of providing notonly a constantly growing population with essential foodstuffs and agricultural rawmaterials, but also satisfying increasing demands for higher product quality.Alongwith the population increase and the social changes came the well-known changesin eating habits.These has not been any other process, which has so influenced thedirection of agricultural production and the whole structure of the European foodeconomy, than the shift in human eating habits from vegetable to animal products.The pressure created by the population increase and higher consumption demandedthat European countries grow cultivated crops that produce higher gross yields andalso the highest food yields.This was true for the majority of root crops: potatoes,sugar beet and the other important types of vegetable.Root crops and vegetablesrequire more work and fertiliser than the various types of cereals, just as these domore than green fodder and pastureland.The increased level of work, however,leads to higher yields which only much later are subject to the effects of the law ofdiminishing yield returns.Firstly it was the mills supplying textiles, shepherdingand cotton growing farms etc.which moved to other areas.Shepherding, whichneeds large pasture areas and reached its peak in the 1860 s has dwindled to a tenthof its earlier level.It was really since cotton took root in the undiscovered areas ofAmerica that shepherding moved away to the steppes of Argentina, Australia andSouth Africa.This was the start of cotton competing with wool.From thesecountries large amounts of raw material flowed into Europe where the textileindustry and heavy industry were the focal point of industrial development.A similar thing happened to the growing of trees, which entails a relatively highamount of manual work and is less suitable for mechanisation or, to be moreprecise, was less suitable than cultivated crops as technology stood at that time.Thus it moved to regions where land was cheap and labour costs low, to easternEurope and Russia which still supply a large part of the total world production.The development is different, at least in parts of countries, for the three mostimportant commodities for human nutrition: cereals, meat and fat.Europe could generally supply itself to the extent that the individual countries made cropproduction the main priority in the formation of their trade and agricultural policies,thus mobilising the means of production of their own land.They wanted to keep asfar as possible the production of bread and animal production in their own country.However, this latter aim was not achieved in most countries.Just as a point, Great Britain converted to total free trade soon after the NapoleonicWars due to their feeling of absolute maritime superiority and abandoned itsagriculture for extensivisation.As a result, its source of food was movedincreasingly outside its borders.Firstly England took the available surpluses ofcereal in Europe, refined animal products and wool, until the demand from thosecountries of origin were able to absorb these surpluses themselves.Then food andraw material supply moved increasingly to occupied areas overseas.After theirvirgin agricultural areas were inhabited and developed, they were exposed moreand more to world trade.The agricultural economies of Denmark and Hollandembraced division of labour and were used to supply the English food economy tothe extent where those countries imported large amounts of cereals and foodstuffsand then sent the valuable end products gained from livestock-holding and dairiesto the English market.The final result in the years preceding the outbreak of warwas that England s importation just of bread cereal and animal feed was 10-11mtons more the import surplus of the whole of Europe.Great Britain also had alarger supply need of the important food types than the whole of Europe.Theimport surplus of sugar was 2m tons, meat 1.5m tons and fat 0.8m tons.Calculatedin terms of calories, England accounted for 20% of all food consumption.The German agricultural economy was able to keep pace the longest with growingdemand for food by increasing its agricultural production.Nevertheless its varyingagricultural policy at times lacked some important conditions for an intensivisationof production [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]